Robot romp

If you played Tiny Thief, you'll know what to expect from Love You To Bits.

This is a point and click adventure, but one that has been ruthlessly streamlined for the smartphone generation.

The puzzles are split into distinct levels, there's never any text to read, and you don't have to drag items from your inventory or construct sentences like Use Jug of Pineapple Juice on Angry Monkey - the game does all that for you.

What you're left with is a sharp puzzle game where you're focused on picking up items and then using them in the environment to help people, distract monsters, and reach bits of your robot girlfriend.

Wait, what?

Did I forget to mention your robot girlfriend? Heartthrob Nova has been blown to bits by a wormhole and it's up to you to travel from planet to planet, picking up arms and legs and cogs and gears.

That means you'll always know what to do in each stage - get the shiny robot body bit. Performing the steps to accomplish this can be tricky - and not always in a good way.

You'll have to make some cosmically-large leaps of logic to figure out how doing one thing will help you with another, and many of the solutions are achieved by brute force and trial and error rather than actually thinking up a solution.

Also, Love You To Bits suffers from some of the same arbitrary and inconsistent rules as those classic adventures.

In one level you have to melt snow to turn it into water - but why does sunlight work and fire doesn't? And why not just put your jug under the raincloud and get the liquid from there? And why does sand put out flames, but a big jug of water doesn't?

Won't cost an arm and a leg

These issues show the limitations of the game's nature. Puzzles can be too easy to solve by accident, and the game won't speak up to explain why your proposed solution is incorrect.

Still, there are plenty of strong puzzles to outweigh the aggravating ones. And you'll put up with those nuisance inconsistencies to see what Love You to Bits will do next.

There's a real sense of creativity in each stage. There's a level where time skips over and over on a constant loop, one that's trapped in the panels of a comic book, an area where you can spin platforms until Komsos is upside down, and a tiny planetoid that's in all four seasons simultaneously.

There are levels inspired by Zelda, Monument Valley, and Limbo, and each stage is populated by quirky little characters and funny alien weirdos. It's just a deeply charming game, and you'll be pleased to spend time with it.

Monument Valley is a good reference actually - like that game, the puzzles are more like mild distractions than truly tricky brain teasers. But you'll enjoy solving them, just to see what kooky idea is coming around the next corner.